So, since we don’t live by politix alone (I sincerely hope), what did people get up to this weekend? Join in, share some tales, regulars and lurkers all! Mine was much less frenetic than last weekend, and I enjoyed a wander round some of Paddington’s vintage clothing/antique shops yesterday. I hadn’t realised before seeing this hat box at the Paddington Antique Centre that it was apparently obligatory for the well dressed man about town of the 1920s to wear lots of blush and lippie to the races as well as his Henderson hat.
Pinup girls by *phenomenologist on deviantART
Vintage orange by *phenomenologist on deviantART
Paddo house by *phenomenologist on deviantART
NB: One thing I don’t like to do with my weekends is sit around writing bile filled comments on blogs. Apparently some people do. I’m in a very disillusioned mood with political blogging at the moment, impressed neither by the stoushing on this thread nor by the attack of the flying monkeys on this one, and questioning the worth of the activity generally, so any snarky comments on this thread will be deleted ruthlessly. No correspondence will be entered into.
The lazy Sunday thread is my fave.
Just got back from the monastic town of New Norcia where I got to meet Chuck Hahn, who typically makes five of the five best beers in Australia. He’s completely pleasant and willing to share his knowledge and not at all a beer Nazi - was a real pleasure. Took the freshly polished motorbike out there via the narrow and winding Chittering Road in glorious weather with every other person who owned a bike in Perth. Now the proud owner of a carton of his limited release Abbey Ale.
Currently trying to get incentivated to go out for a tasting of Balinese coffee but my biker bones have gotten soft and I’m right knackered.
I’m having a quiet sort of time listening to some Beethoven to fill in the time between now and Damages. Got a cracker first frame for this week’s strip completed and right now I’m strongly resisting the impulse to do any more sketching tonight.
Well, today I went to the market and bought about 5kg of vegetables, then I came back to my little house, put all the vegies in a pot, and that’s my dinner for a week and a half. Then I took some flour and yeast, and made bread. That’s my breakfast sorted.
It should feel like an accomplishment, all this cooking, but because it’s domestic and necessary, it’s just like housework.
This “Lazy Sunday” thread always appears in my RSS reader on Sunday mornings (as I’m living in the UK) and gives me fantastic ideas for the day.
I spent yesterday buzzing around Bristol doing a bit of shopping. I got myself a new pair of running shoes and visited a gym that I’m thinking of joining. I’ve been living here for a couple of months now and most things are settled and sorted so I figured that now I have the time to finally get in some exercise.
In the evening I thought I’d test out the new shoes a go for a bit of a jog in an area of town that I hadn’t visited yet and I came across a pretty cool looking cafe on the Bristol waterfront which I think I might visit today to see if their coffee is as good as their location.
Oh, and this afternoon is going to be all about watching Australia ply Fiji in the Rugby World Cup!
I am stuck in a hotel room in Manila, up here for work for four weeks.
I could not get into the office this afternoon as it is locked, and the locals are not in on Sunday. And it is raining outside so no tourist-ing. So I thought I will watch Casey Stoner win the MotoGP title… no such luck. The cable channels here like to replay things like Mid-week baseball, old tennis matches and 1930’s boxing…. not happy. Well at least I will see him in Melbourne next month.
On top of that, I reckon that I am also not gonna get to see the Rugby later tonight.
So the afternoon was spent working on a technical specification, and eating junk food from the local 7-Kevin-Oh-Seven-Eleven.
And everyone thinks international travel for work is glamourous. Next weekend will be better, the BF is flying in from Singapore.
(oh - and please click the link to have a look at my blog - comments appreciated).
We went Sunshine Coasting. It’s another world. Quite a nice one, too.
Or, as I heard somebody say in all seriousness the other day, “New nausea? Do you get headaches?”
And, Mark, it’s good to see you acknowledge that a bloke needs an ‘at. You know, for puttin’ on yer ‘ead.
Ideally, I suppose, an Enderson At.
This, unfortunately.
But then I went out and had a drink and guitar play with the neighbours.
A Henderson Hat is what you put on when you want to pontificate.
Went to see the ‘Treasures from the Nasser D Khalili Collection’ The Arts of Islam at the Art Gallery of NSW. The last weekend of a run of quite a few months and it was packed, wall to wall, not only packed but those that were there were studying with forensic intensity. It is an extraordinary collection but still heartening that Sydney folk have embraced this exhibition in such a way.
Sorry Elen, but tax bores me to tears. But the Enderson At looks to me to be all the go when you want a - wot was it - Pontificate?
Well yer definitely need yer At fer that http://www.vatican.va/
Went surfing at a remote beach on norh coast NSW.Water was very clean - it has been rather murky lately which is strange as there hasn’t been much rain and the rivers aren’t discharging a lot of silt at present.
The beach is very exposed to southerly swells and this place has waves with a lot of punch. If you’ve surfed at Nth Curl Curl you’ll know the type of setup.
Anyway while paddling out I got caught by a wave and now have a broken nose courtesy of the board flipping back into my face .
That cruching noise is one I’ll remember for a while.
And the local pub’s pizza place has sold out - apparently school holidays have started in Queensland so they are packed out .
The beer is still cold though.
An Enderson At! http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2006/09/16/knPOPE_wideweb__470×367,0.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2006/09/16/1158334735074.html%3Ffrom%3Dtop5&h=367&w=470&sz=19&hl=en&start=14&tbnid=pnX7XqLeTeSxEM:&tbnh=101&tbnw=129&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpope%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DG
Must be the painkillers - ‘north coast’ and ‘crunching’.
I got a new rosebush and some herbs to grow in my backyard; I weeded part of my backyard; I watched the season finale of Doctor Who (yay!); did more work in the back yard, and made ham and lentil soup.
The morn saw exertions in the field of flinging a red ball at someone protecting three upright poles with a piece of wood. Just two weeks till the season starts.
With slightly creaking joints, arrived home and spend time with the Little One while The Beloved rested.
Then with trepidation and excitement awaited the start of the 4:00pm rollercoaster ride. And indeed it was one hell of ride that didn’t end quite the way I wanted it to. But I’m proud of the way the Blue and Gold fought to the end. Good on ya lads. 2008 will be a good year.
Finally broke my target of ten k’s in fifty minutes on Saturday, and then rewards today by going to the delicious Newtown food festival, and feasting on Chorizo, salmon, pavlova, gelati, etc. etc.
And finally some preliminary suit shopping. Everyone is warning me against it, but I can’t shake the idea of a linen suit for summer….
Damn fine idea, I say!
(Except linen suits remind me of the attire Dolly used to affect when he went to the more tropical of our colonies - but reclaim them!)
I played frisbee with my lad. Ate some snowpeas from the trellis, and the first ripe mulberry and some strange downy yellow fruit whose name I don’t know. Watched the noisy minahs taunting the cat. Scraped the rust off the lad’s bike chain. Drove around a bit with the bairns because there was such a lovely clear light after yesterday’s rain and because every two years I get the urge to move on and the only way to keep it a bay is to stay in constant motion but keep returning.
Ew for the Downer association!
But the idea of the linen suit intrigues me… It sounds so cool (literally) in summer, and also a little bit different.
Alternately you could try a very light wool. Linen suits look good, but it’s a rather impractical cloth! But maybe that’s a good thing!
Small oval things? Kind of sour in taste? Big seeds in the middle? Been trying to find the name of those things for weeks (mainly by doing other things and hoping the answer will come to me in an entertaining way. It’s worked before).
We have a big tree of the things… until last week when the bats came and ate them all.
Then the bats went away.
But the little house lizards are coming back now, which is nice. And Brisbane council informs me that I can keep 6 peacocks on my property without a permit, so that’s another idea for a pet.
I was thinking of buying a pig, but I only live on a 1/4 acre block, and that’s not enough space.
I watched Port Adelaide tromp all over the Kangaroos and a mighty fine spectacle it was. As for next week — bring on the Abletts (aka the Sons of God) and let them do their worst. The Power has two pairs of starry brothers.
Sat up in my roof garden with some old friends and a sufficient supply of Cascade Premium casting occasional glances at a glorious Melbourne sunset.
Went to the lifeline bookfair in Canberra today and cleaned up with 2 bags full of books for 40 bucks, great bargain for a great cause.
However I took the less intellectual option for the rest of the afternoon and played Wario smooth moves on the wii, so fun!
I’m fond of the Geckoes too! Not so much of last week’s spring driven influx of enormous mosquitoes and flies.
Yes that is the one exactly Amazing Kim! If it comes to you please let me know some other sunday. They aren’t bush tucker are they?
Six peacocks or a pig? What a lovely dilemma. How about a goat? I long for a goat. The geckoes are the only thing I miss about QLD. Even though they are ideologically incorrect geckoes, blow-ins from SE Asia, they were wonderful fun and man, did they keep the cockroaches in check.
I attended a kid’s 10th birthday party in New Farm Park. I shared a house with him and his father a couple of years ago, and he’s “family”. Last saw him climbing those rope pyramids near the Banyan trees, ten metres up!
Mr Vane and I spent several hours playing Guild Wars so that my character can go from this mostly-naked, skanky-ho armour to this more suitable outfit. It is bloody annoying that the female characters have to spend the initial parts of the game mostly naked, particularly when theoretically running through snow. I notice that the male characters start fully clothed, though no surprise there!
I spent the rest of the weekend procrastinating over writing a job application and reading the new Terry Pratchett book, ‘Making Money’.
Everyone:
Another frugal weekend. Listened to a neighbour’s CD of Australian singers John Williamson and Chad Morgan “Old Farts and Caravan Parks” - we all had a good chuckle. Then mulled over the economics of abolishing entirely the Australian Defence Force and the Dept. of Veterans’ Affairs.
The Amazing Kim and Su:
Happy vegetablling.
Joni:
Manila without rain is like an egg without salt. You should have fled your hotel room, got a little bit wet, taken a bus somewhere, got out, wandered around or stopped to see something interesting then caught a bus back. Beats looking at 4 walls.
Mark, evreyone know that Enderson Ats go quoite noicely with a great bag of fruit. Dare I suggest an Enderson Suit?
Sunday: High Vibes in Northcote. From a locals perspective it was yet another Festival of Beer, Loudness and Public Littering. Sigh.
I’ve got the bag of fruit, CK, I just need the right hat! Unfortunately one supplier mentioned to me has discontinued its range of Homburgs and Trilbys.
http://www.clearwaterhats.com/victorian2.htm
What would Mr Steed think?
The linen suit is definitely a great thing, although the right accessories to wear it well can be a little expensive and daunting. Ideally one should have either ancestral ownership of a tropical rubber plantation, or else diplomatic credentials and fluency in a dozen languages, mostly East Asian, and a hilariously haughty attitude. Or at least a thoroughbred stud farm and excellent taste in cocktails. Failing these, it’s still possible to pull off, but it becomes essential to select the right style of shirt and shades. Small variations in detail can make the difference between seeming like the genuine heir to the throne of cool, and a cheap Miami cocaine middleman. Or worse, Chet Baker. And if anyone so much as thinks of wearing gold chains, I’ll hit the trap-door button and send you hurtling into the shark tank. And yes, look down, you’re standing right on it. People are always making that mistake.
What did I do on the weekend? Helped a friend with an unusual problem, slept an unconscionable amount of time (much needed), did a bunch of maintenance that had gone neglected too long, drank a nice cup of chai while looking at a vivid rainstorm, and unwittingly picked up that book “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” which I’d intended to read only like 20 or so pages of, but then wound up stuck in it all day long, finishing the whole book in one sitting, which is something I never, ever do. I have to admit that although I really wanted it to be perfect, I didn’t think it quite was; my enthusiasm dropped off somewhat after the big revelations around page 100 or so (both of which I’d already guessed), but I still had to keep going just to see how it would all turn out. Best peculiar narrator’s voice since “The Debt to Pleasure.” Worth a look.
Japerz, that’s exactly what happened to me after finding a copy at a beach house a few weekends ago.
Could not put it down.
I was so het up with worry that he’d miss his maths exam and the tendency of the adults to pooh-pooh that wish.
joni wrote:
Of course it all depends on where you end up. New York is definitely glamourous on the weekends. Johannesburg not so much.
My birthday this weekend. Wife had shocking migraine so the baby came with me and the girls for their saturday swimming lesson. Baby fell asleep surrounded by cooing mums who think she is the most beautiful thing on the planet. Tried and failed to be modest about our genetic achievements. Spent the afternoon lazily cleaning the house.
Neighbours across the road cooked up a huge pot of Mussaman Beef and a thai salad and brought it over which was unexpected and very nice (along with a couple too many Tiger beers). Impromptu birthday party commenced. Kids watched the execrable “High School Musical 2″ for which the Dads snuck in to have another peak at the Hudgens kiddie and wondered aloud whether it was sick to go looking for the nekkid pictures on the internet. I was made a fuss of which I enjoyed very much.
sunday: My family presented me with a Cd player for the old Alfa I’ve been working on forever. One of the birthday presents was a ticket of leave to tinker with the beast for the day free-ish of distractions so I can get it registered. All the vacuum leaks have finally been sorted (old, rotten hoses are the bane of fuel injected cars I suppose) and the cd player is snuggled behind the funky plastic door on the dashboard. The car has been christened “Bruno” and is now getting ready for it’s blue slip. Wife worked on her new vegetable garden, now surrounded by $5 of chicken wire and star posts courtesy of the 2nd hand shop at the recycling centre. Looking forward to backyard fresh vegies now! Bruno, don’t let me down!
Loquats? They’ve come into fruit in my garden.
I spent the day where I’d like to spend every Sunday. Working in the garden.
The chooks were happy with the mountains of leaves and other green waste I managed to pillage from a neighbour. They’ll scratch it around obsessively for a few days, turn it into a finely chopped organic mix, which will then go into the compost bin. It’ll compost for a few weeks, then go back to the chooks for another mixing, and eventually I’ll have some nice topping to enrich my veggie patch with.
Even when I pinch the contents of my neighbours green waste bins, I’m still not producing enough compost for this absolutely crappy soil and my ever ambitious veggie patch.
On Sunday it got a little more ambitious, I turned over another patch of the lawn and cut another bed. Water’s already proving an issue, I’m rescuing every single bit of grey water for the gardens already. I’ll have to start taking baths instead of showers so I can bucket that water onto the veggies!
There’s one room which always heats up in summer because of the sun on the brick wall and large glass window. I lifted up some concrete blocks that had been poured between the pre-existing path and the wall by the previous tenant, dug the ground through with some compost, and planted a few rows of corn. Hopefully by the height of summer I’ll have a corn hedge that keeps that room a little cooler. Beats going out and buying yet more shade cloth.
Fortunately or unfortunately my garden attracts a LOT of birds. Wonga pigeons and sparrows in the main. Unfortunately those lovely native pigeons puree my nice gardens. I’m planning a formidable array of bird netting, and I managed to get some pickets in the ground in preparation before the sun went down.
Yay, lazy Sundays.
What state are you in, Kieran? I seem to remember having heard a rumour that grey water use on gardens is going to be banned because it encourages people to make extra grey water. I know you were joking but I’ve caught myself thinking that even though the rug probably doesn’t need washing I’ll wash it anyway. Bucketing it out is no joke, though. Do you use grey water on your food plants? We’re currently using only the water rice and vegetables have been rinsed in for the vegetables, but like you I feel like planting more stuff, and I probably won’t be able ot keep it watered.
High St festival in Northcote. Street drinking and bands galore.
Brain hurty.
A busy weekend: my first outing as an amateur sound man, a fantastic lunch at the Forest Lodge Hotel, two trips to IKEA, a very thorough cleaning of the house in anticipation of our inspection this week, some Dr Who and pizza on Saturday night. All very good.
On Friday we left a pile of those green shopping bags in the corner near the guinea pig cage. On Saturday I noticed that the rabbit had taken a liking to the spot as a place to lie down, so I left him to it. On Sunday morning I noticed that he had urinated all over them and a little had leaked through to the carpet. Not so good.
Slept off the previous evening, as well as the previous week of labwork (I remain surprised, after several months, how exhausting running around a lab all day is). Read the new Terry Pratchett in between naps, was mildly disappointed. I think he phoned this one in
maybe it’ll improve after an extra reading or two, but he seems to be on a kick where each new novel documents the rise of another component of the modern world. I rather miss the rest of the Discworld universe…
That’s them! Thanks Bismarck.
We’re on septic so effectively our gray water goes straight onto the fruit trees, but I worry a bit because all the sodium in things like washing detergent is supposed to be extremely bad for soil structure.
Sat. morning read e-mails, did a bit of logging. Spent day writing up notes on Siege of Gibraltar, and going over rewrite of prologue to my book. E-mailed draft off to some people at UNE, Bonn and Zurich.Tried to reply to phone message from Sydney, but kept getting wrong number.
Watched last episode opf DR. Who, The Bill, Sideshow,
read a book about daily life in the American Rewvolution (useful, but not that good.)
Morning -Watched Insiders, then Ch. 9.Caught up on political scandals etc.,Blogs. Doing extra work on prologue., Wreck of the Carysfort, October 1770.
Missed a conference call I was supposed to be on because I forgot about it and didn’t hear the phone ring.Pretty pointless anyway, because the connection is always bad.
Watched Einstein Factor, ABC News, doco on caribou. Decided I coulodn’t face Fallen Angel. Watched movie on 7 instead. Bed close to midnight.
Su I’ve been using this laundry powder - http://www.lightningcleans.com.au/catalog/item/3180471/2717775.htm - the claim ‘100% grey water safe’ is untrue but at least it has no fillers and low sodium / phosphate. Its completely soluble. So far, so good. And on a clay soil phosphates don’t do that much harm anyway - it’s better than no water at all, I guess.
Thanks Laura I’ll look around for a stockist. I guess no fillers means no optical brighteners either. Out of all of the locally available commercial brands I could only find one without brighteners.
I started a detox and watched one of our cats being put to sleep (he had FIV). You could say it wasn’t the best weekend of the year!
“at least it has no fillers and low sodium / phosphate. Its completely soluble. So far, so good. And on a clay soil phosphates don’t do that much harm anyway - it’s better than no water at all, I guess.”
If y’all are re-using ‘grey water’ that extensively, would it be possible to construct communal cisterns, with a sort of basic inexpensive gravel/charcoal filtration layer, so everyone in a given radius could siphon their grey water into it and then re-use it more efficiently for gardens and so on once it had had a basic run thru the filter and a nice distillation set-down in the cistern?
Only at huge and point-defeating expense, jpz, at least in already established areas. Melbourne sewage is treated and recycled anyway, industrially, hence the famous yellow cauliflowers and cabbages of Altona and Weribbee. I understand developers are being encouraged to think about putting in ‘third pipes’ on new developments to run some of this treated but not potable water back to households for gardens, toilet flushing etc.
That’s happening in a few new developments in Brisbane, Laura.
Mark, CK, j-p-z et al;
Go on. Go the whole hog. A linen SAFARI suit …. ideal for all tropical climes, wet or dry.
Bruno failed his rego check today (sniff). Needs more money. Note to young players - do not google image search for “rack bush steering” with children around
Linen suits? They always sound like a better idea than they look. Not great if you’ve got kids or like your food with tomato sauce, but I suppose a dashing young single type might j-u-s-t get away with it on a steamy Brisbane afternoon in a suitable beer garden.
I think the Safari Suit is well overdue for a revival, along with the Al Grassby tie collection and that stupendous, greasy quiff that Bob Hawke had in the seventies. I’m not distinguished enough to carry that one off either, but if my hair holds out until it turns silver like that, I’ll be quiffed and struttin’
David, you haven’t seen Christian Kerr’s head, have you.
Laura, I haven’t seen Christian Kerr’s head, but I wouldn’t mind it on a platter judging by what he writes.
Hey, leave Christian alone. He has a much better head of hair than me and we’re about the same age. I’m extremely envious of his quiff. And he’s a very nice guy.
re Laura:
We’re in Victoria. Haven’t heard any rumours about banning grey water. We’re on level four, so technically it’s no water outdoors at all.
As for causing more grey water use, I’m certainly thinking about the garden when the washing goes in. When stuff gets done is timed with most efficient use of grey water. I was serious about the bath. I don’t have a system for capturing the shower’s grey water (I rent, so no tapping the pipes), whereas I could bucket the bath.
As for use on food, my garden is completely food. My main concern about grey water is the risk of increasing the salinity of the soil in my garden beds. I try and combat the salinity by maintaining a large amount of mulch to develop a salt repelling microclimate. I heard of the theory from this permaculture vid on farming along the shores of the dead sea.
As for the yuck factor associated with using grey water on food, I just don’t understand it.
It’s not the yuck factor so much as the health risks I’m concerned about (although you might mean those, I guess.) I’m really out of my depth with anything to do with chemistry so I don’t know how much credence to give the warnings against using untreated grey water on leafy food or on food that’s not cooked before eating.
I’m in Melbourne and not hanging out for the introduction of stage four (although outside watering is not something I do except with reused water).
Your chooks sound better than ours, which are only interested in trying to get into the house.